Carrollton pioneer Good served city
during lifeby R. Boyce Walker - Staff Writer

Tracing the life of Chester A. Good follows a path outlining the history
of the Carrollton community.
Good, 91, died Dec. 6. He was one of the last surviving members of Carrollton's
founding families. He was the grandson of Noah Good,
who helped establish the Peters Colony settlement in the 1840's.
A professional electrician, Good reopened a power plant in 1916 previously
operated by Western Electric Company. The facility was located on Broadway
Street near West 4th Street in downtown Carrollton.
"The electric plant operated only at night, except on Wednesday, when it ran
until 1 p.m. Thursday morning to provide electricity for ironing clothes," says
longtime Carrollton resident Virginia Bramblitt Owens. "The cost
per-kilowatt-hour was 20 cents for the first 10 hours. Then the price lowered
some as some customers used more kilowatt hours.
"Most customers paid only the monthly minimum of $2 for electric service,
because this was ample; or more than they needed to light their homes and iron
their clothes.
"In the early years of his business, Chester maintained the operation of the
power plant, wired the houses using the knob and tube-wiring method, read
meters, collected bills and serviced the customers' various electric problems.,"
Mrs. Owens says. "He operated the business alone for about two years and then
cousin Don Good joined him."
Cousin Arthur Good joined the family in operating a motion picture and a flour
milling business in the downtown Carrollton area.
"Opening this new business required the electric plant to run day and night to
furnish power needed to grind wheat," says Mrs. Owens. "Farmers around the
community brought their wheat for grinding into flower and either paid a fee for
the grinding or traded extra wheat or flour for the price of milling."
The milling operation lasted only about four years, unable to compete with
advanced milling techniques being developed by large companies.
After selling the power plant some years later, Good operated an ice and power
plant in Trinity County in East Texas. He later worked with Texas Power and
Light Company until he retired in 1958.
Born Jan 12, 1893, Good was the third son of
John A. Good and Mary Ella Butler,
He had four brothers - Byron,
Truett, Oran
and John Rowland; and three sisters -
Flora, Ruth Rose and Virgie Allen
Reeves. He married Mary Elizabeth Hamilton of Wheatland, who worked as a
librarian in the Carrollton schools. The Goods had one daughter, Mary Grace Heit.Mrs. Good died in 1968, following a brief illness. Their daughter, Mary Grace
died in 1978. The Goods had three grandsons: Dr. John Heit, of the Mayo Clinic
in Rochester, Minnesota; James Heit, a San Antonio pharmacist studying to become
a dentist; and Jerry Heit, an FFA traffic controller stationed in Tulsa,
Oklahoma.
Good was a member of the First Baptist Church in Carrollton, the
Carrollton
Volunteer Fire Department, the James A. Smith Masonic Lodge No. 395, and a
charter member of the Carrollton Lions.